Whoops! Dan turned quickly around and strode across the pier and up Eleventh Street. Maybe when he got home tonight, he'd look online and locate the nearest post office to theRed Letter headquarters. How important could that one letter have been, anyway? He shoved his hands in his pockets, felt the crinkle of the hundred-dollar bill, and remembered the caviar.  ?Fuck.? Inside Gourmet Garage, there were stacks of tinned black caviar and about eight different kinds with blue labels. Dan grabbed the most expensive one and headed over to the register.  ?Dan?? He turned around. It was Elise, Jenny's friend. She was carrying a baguette that was about three feet long, and she had flour on her face. She looked sort of cute, actually, except that Dan suddenly noticed she was much taller than he was, by like a foot. ?What are you doing here? Jenny said you were starting your new job today.? Dan pointed to the little tin of caviar motoring along on the black rubber conveyor belt toward the cashier. How could anything that small cost seventy-four dollars? ?My boss sent me out to buy some stuff.? Elise watched as he paid for the caviar with the hundred-dollar bill and then tucked it and the change into his APC storm coat pocket. ?Wow,? she breathed, impressed. ?Well, anyway, I just went over to your new office to bring you some cookies. I was bored, and I thought maybe you'd like a treat on your first day.? She smiled shyly as she paid for her baguette. ?I always write better when I have something good to munch on.? Dan wasn't quite sure what to make of this. ?I have to get back,? he told her, and pushed open the door to the street. ?Okay.? She walked with him to the corner with the baguette tucked under her arm. There was flour all over her black wool pea coat. ?I need a cab. I was just buying my mom some bread. Our family practically lives on Coke and French bread. My dad calls it the Wells Diet.? Dan smiled. The diet worked. Elise was pretty skinny. He squinted up at her in the cold noon sun. Elise had brought him cookies. She had cute freckles and was gangly and tall and had a baguette under her arm. Standing there in her black pea coat and black ballet flats, she looked extremely French and poetic. He could definitely write a poem about her. She waved the baguette at a passing cab. ?Hey!? The cab stopped, and she turned to say good-bye. ?Jenny and I might watch movies or something later. Maybe I'll see you at your house?? Dan took a step toward her. ?You have flour on your cheek.? He daubed at it with his thumb and then kissed the spot. ?There.? The corners of Elise's lips turned up in a tentative smile. ?Thanks.? The cabbie honked his horn. She tucked the baguette more snugly under her arm. ?I left the cookies on your desk. They're good, I think. Okay, see you,? she added before hopping into the backseat of the taxi. Petite mignonette,Dan began to write in his head as he walked back toward the office.Sweet coquette. He wasn't even sure if those were real French words, but they sounded like a flirty little French girl who carried bread under her arm and brought you cookies. The kind you wrote songs and poems about and kissed on the cheek. Elise was only fourteen, after all. She was no Mystery Craze, but she obviously adored him, and at least she wasaround. He lit another cigarette and walked back to the office at a leisurely pace. So far this work thing wasn't so bad. As long as he stayed out of the office. V helps her parents find art ?Look, dad, an old sled,? Vanessa called. She'd made the mistake of mentioning how much old stuff people in New York leave out on the sidewalk?she'd actually found a pair of perfectly good old-fashioned roller skates that way?and now she was patrolling the streets of Williamsburg, helping them hunt for found-art treasures. Arlo shuffled over to the red plastic sled and picked it up. It was cracked down the middle and covered with puffy stickers of turtles. The bottom of it was stained and discolored from the days of dog pee it had endured. ?It might smell,? Vanessa warned. Arlo shrugged and dropped it into Ruby's black metal shopping cart. Already they'd found a blue plastic fishbowl, a white chef's hat, and an ashtray made out of thumbtacks. ?What we really need is something big,? Gabriela said as they continued on. ?Something profound.? Vanessa trailed them grudgingly, wondering what her mother meant. Another horse? A supersized cheese grater? She kicked a crushed empty juice box away with her foot and sat down on a stoop while her mom and dad conversed with the owner of an ancient pickup truck parked outside what looked like a fisherman's shack in the midst of a block of warehouses. Then her mom walked over and sat down next to her. ?Arlo's found a kindred spirit,? she remarked, smiling at her husband from afar. ?I think he's going to be a while.? Today Arlo was wearing his wool poncho over Bermuda shorts and tennis shoes with no socks. His knees were bluish white and knobby, and his shins were bruised from knocking around in his forge up in Vermont, making mobiles out of old wheelbarrow carcasses or deer antlers. Vanessa marveled that her dad had ever found someone who could look at him the way her mom did. Talk about kindred spirits! ?So what happened to that wonderful shaggy little boyfriend of yours?? Gabriela asked. She pulled the rubber band out of the end of her long gray braid and combed her paint-stained fingers through her hair. Vanessa grimaced. Part of the reason she kept her head shaved was that her mother's hair grossed her out. ?You mean Dan?? Gabriela reached up and began to massage the back of Vanessa's neck. Vanessa winced?she hated to be touched without an invitation?but her mother didn't notice her discomfort. ?I always thought you two would wind up getting married or something. You reminded me of Arlo and me.? Vanessa hugged her knees, enduring the massage. ?Dan's joined the police force,? she said, knowing how much her parents resented law enforcement. ?No kidding.? Gabriela let go of Vanessa's neck. She divided her gray hair into three thick clumps and began to braid it again. ?He was such a marvelou............